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From My Ishmael:Excerpt 3

Retaliation and annihilation in the New World

Ishmael. When European settlers first arrived in the New World, the natives were of course still following the Erratic Retaliator strategy. This had worked for them from the beginning of time, and they were careful to follow it with the newcomers, who were baffled by it, to say the least. Just when they got things nicely sorted out— as they thought!—the natives would suddenly lash out in brutal and unprovoked attacks (just as they were used to doing among themselves). This made perfect sense to the natives, and it actually worked very well for them for quite a long time. The white settlers learned to be very, very respectful of the natives’ unpredictability. But eventually, of course, the settlers’ numbers grew to the extent that they were able to override the native strategy. In some cases they moved in and absorbed the natives. In other cases they moved in and drove the natives out to live or die elsewhere. And in still other cases they just moved in and exterminated them. But in every case, they annihilated them as tribal entities. The Takers were not at all interested in being surrounded by tribal peoples playing Erratic Retaliator, and they were able to generate unlimited supplies of the stuff that wins wars. This made them unbeatable by tribal peoples, even working together. New circumstances can undermine any strategy, even if it’s worked flawlessly for a million years, and a tribe with virtually unlimited agricultural resources playing Annihilator was certainly something new. The Takers were irresistible, and this led them to imagine themselves to be the agents of human destiny itself. It still does, of course.